Introduction

In the future energy system, renewable fuels and chemicals are envisaged to fulfill the need for seasonal storage of energy, to provide clean dense energy carriers for transport and mobility, and to supply (chemical) industries with sustainable feedstocks. With Power-to-X technologies, CO2, H2O, and/or N2 ‘waste’ can be upgraded to ‘circular’ fuels and chemicals (X) in processes powered by renewable electricity (P).

Notwithstanding that electrolysis of water has already been in practice since 1800 being one of the first P2X technologies, the process is (still) not economic feasible for large-scale employment for the above purposes, also because of the strong competition with processes running on cheaper fossil fuels. What has to be done to realise the switch?

This Energy Day will give insight into the current state of research and development towards the deployment of P2X technologies. What are the challenges faced on different levels, from electrochemistry fundamentals, to chemical reactor engineering and scenarios for upscaling?